Lock for drawers



(No Model 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

GORY.

L'OGK FOR DRAWERS.

No. 298,460. Patented May 13, 1884.

N. PETERS. Pwuwulhogn her. wuhiiu wn, DC.

(N0 Model.) 2.Sheets'Shet 2.

E- G. GORY'.

LOOK FOR DRAWERS.

No. 298,460. v Patented May 13, 1884.

N. PETERS. Photo-whagraphor. wminp n.c.

IINr'rnn STATES EMANUEL G. CORY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE CORBIN CABINET LOCK COMPANY, OF NEWV BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT.

LOOK FOR DRAWERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 298,460, dated May 13, 1884.

Application filed February 19, 1884. (No model.)

To a/ZZ whom, it may concern-.-

Be it known that I, EMANUEL G. GoRY, of the city of Cincinnati, county of Hamilton,

State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Looks for Drawers and Similar Uses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to that class of furniture-locks the boxes or cases of which are adapted to enter a cavity in the drawer or other part to which they are secured, and also a means by which the locks are embedded and secured with rapidity and certainty. In locks of this class (adapted to be inserted and held in undercut mortises) now in use, considerable difficulty is experienced by users in properly inserting the locks, owing partly to the fact that locks are not all of a uniform or exact size, and that the slightest unsteadiness in the routerspindle, or irregularity in sharpening or setting the cutters,wil1 vary the size of the mortises, so that in practice it is found that some are too large while others will not receive the lock. Another trouble is caused by the lumber not being uniformly seasoned, and by its property of shrinking and swelling under different conditions of the atmosphere, so that even werethe mortises the exact size when routed they will vary by the time the work is finished for the reception of the look. It is also desirable to have the key-post project into the keyhole in the wood, that the key will be certainly guided to its place.

The object of my present invention is to overcome these defects, and provide a lock that may be inserted without requiring any special tools or such nice adjustment of the machinery, or that may beinserted without the use of machinery.

The invention will be first fully described in connection with the accompanying drawings, and then particularly referred to in the claims.

In the drawings, in which similar referenceletters indicate like parts wherever they occur, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a drawer-front, having a mortise or depression to receive my preferred form of lock, which mortise is made by the ordinary w oodworker or any grooving or gaining tool, or

where no machinery is used by hand. Fig. 2 is my preferred form of lock, illustrating by dotted line a front plate and selvage adapted to fit the mortise, Fig. 1, or Fig. 3, which is a perspective view of a mortise made by a cutter upon a spindle or mandrel revolving in a plane parallel to the drawer-front. Fig. '4c is a perspective view of a routed drawer-front, showing in dotted and full line two forms of mortises. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a self-fastening lock adapted to enter the mortises, Fig. 4. Fig.6 is a perspective view of a routed drawer-front to receive the lock. Fig. 7: this repesents the lock used upon the better, class of furniture, in which the key-post is a considerable distance from the selvage. This lock is held in'mortise, Fig. 6, by the rounded lower edge of the cap and the selvage. Figs. 8 and 11 are top plan views of mortises for the reception of my preferred form of lock, which mortises are made like Fig. 8 by the wood-worker. Fig. 9 is a side elevation, and Fig. 10 an inverted plan View, of a tool to be used by the cabinet-maker to countersink the projecting spurs upon the selvage of my preferred form of lock. Fig. 12 is a form of a lockcase adapted to enter a plain dovetail mortise. Fig. 13 shows in perspective the front plate and selvage of a modified formof my invention, and Fig. 14. shows in plan view the mortise to receive the lock so constructed.

The mortise, Figs. 1, 3, 8, and 11, is easiest made upon the wood-worker, which machine is employed in every factory using power. There are, however, many cabinet-shops that do not use steam-power, but nearly all of these have a saw-table for sawing, grooving, &c. the saw-mandrel being driven by hand or foot power. Themortisecan alsobemadeuponthis table. The groover or cutter-head is mounted upon the saw-mandrel, the table-top, which is hinged to the frame, is turned up, and a supplemental top, withthe proper guides and stop upon it, is placed in position over the mandrel. A mortise of any size may be made with the same tool or cutter. It is easier of course to have the cutter the exact size or width of the mortise, as in such case but one guide is needed, and the mortise is made at a single operation by placing the end of the drawer-front C against this guide and feeding it over the cutter until the top edge of the drawer-front comes against the stop upon the table; but if a tool is used narrower than the mortise, two end guides are necessary. These are placed upon opposite sides of the cutter and farther apart than thelength of the drawer-front. The endplay of the drawer between the guides will be equal to the difference between the width of the cutter and the desired mortise. The drawer-front is fed forward, first against one end guide, then against the other. These'two operations are, however, performed in much less time than is required. to make a route by a cutter mounted upon a mandrel revolving at right angles to the drawer-front C. The depth of themortise from top edge of the drawer-front is regulated by the distance the back-stop is placed from a plane vertically above the axis of rotation. The depth of mortise in the direction of the thickness of thefront is regulated by the distance the cutter projects through the table. These mortises, made by a cutter revolving around an axis parallel to the drawerfront, will be uniform in size and perfectly smooth, while it is very difficult to make a smooth mortisewith a router-bit, as it cuts with the grain upon one side and against it upon the other. Great care is also required to prevent the router from splitting the upper edge of the drawer-front upon one side of the mortise. The plain mortise, Fig. 1, may be easily made without machinery. Straight cuts with a tenon-saw are made to form the side walls of the mortise. The intervening wood is easily out out with a chisel. The saw-blade will make a kerf back of the mortise, as seen in dotted line, as was common with the old style of locks let in by hand. The locks-to fit these mortises have their front plates, A, and selvages B made of one piece, the selvage being at a right angle, as usual. The front plate may be made to snugly fit into the mortise and be flush with the inside of the front G. As wood does not shrink endwise, it will always fit, no matter what the condition of the wood may be when the mortise is made or when the lock is inserted, or the front plate may be made to overlap the mortise. The selvages of these locks have end projecting spurs, b, to

enter countersunk depressions in the top edge of the drawer-front C. These depressions are represented in dottedline in the figures above referred to, and they are made by the tool D, (represented in Figs. 9 and 10,) when the lock is to be inserted. The tool has projecting from its lower end a tenon, d, of the same width as the mortise, and also two spurs, d, which are the counterparts of spurs b, which project from each end of the lock-selvage.

When the drawer having the mortises, Figs. 1, 3, 8, or 11, is finished ready for the insertion of the lock, the cabinet-makerplaces the tenon d of the tool D in the top of the mortise and against its back wall, with the angular spurs d resting 011 the top edge of-the drawer-front. Then by a slight blow on the .sult,

through the key-hole in front 0, for when the key-post is against the upper end of the keyhole the selvage will just pass over the drawerfg top, and when the spurs b are pressed down into their seats formed by the tool D, thekeypost will then be in proper posltion to receive the key of the look. In this form of lock the box or cap E may be of anyshape, as it hangs g entirely free of the walls of the mortise.

It is obvious that the shape of the mortise in plan view may be varied, and that if the plate of the lock is to be flushed into the drawer the selvage and plat-e must conform to the shape of the mortise or the cutter used to make it; but the shape of the cutter is not of the essence of my invention. A

The form of lock shown in Fig. 5 is designed to be held in an undercut mortise, such as represented in Fig. 4, without extraneous fastenings. This I accomplish by bending inward wings a, from the plate A, and serrating the edges of these inwardly-bent wings. The mortise, Fig. 4, has a ledge or offset, upon which the edges of the wings rest when the lock is seated, leaving a chamber below for the reception of the lock-box and projecting key-post. The selvage of the look is the same shape as a top plan view of the mortise. The dotted lines in Figs. 4 and 5 show variations in the shape of the plate A and the mortise, indicating how the lock-plate may be made to overlap the mortise, or to be let in flush with the inside of the drawer, as desired.

Fig. 13 shows the plate A with wings bent down at a right angle to the plate, and. then returned parallel to it', and the selvage shaped to fit the mortise, Fig. 14, which receives the lock, Fig. 13. The returned wings a may also be serrated to retain the lock without other fastening; but a wire nail driven in front of the wing will accomplish the same re- In Figs. 6 and 7 are shown an undercut mortise and a lock to be held in it by the selvage at the top and the rounded end of the lock cap E. This lock may have a key-post long enough to project into the key-hole in the mortise or be flushed in, as indicated in dotted line.

The lock, Fig. 12, is intended tofit a plain dovetail mortise like Fig. 6, and project the thickness of the plate A from the inside of the I 30 drawer, so that the lower rounded end will overlap the end of the mortise and prevent the box from dropping inward, and also furnish lodgment for a screw or nail to hold the lower front 0, and the plate may either overlap the 12 5 rounded end of the plate and prevent displacement of the look when the drawer is inverted or handled separately.

In the form of lock shown in Figs. 5, 12, and 13 it is better to have but a portion of the plate A bent down to form the wings a, and the downwardly-bent portions only projecting inward a short distance to rest upon an inwardly-projecting ledge in the side of the mortise, as seen at Fig. 4, when the lock is flushed in without overlapping edges, as shown by the inner dotted line, Fig. 5, or to act in conjunction with the overlapping edge shown in full line, Fig. 5, to securely retain the lock in the mortise. But little metal is required for the fastening wings and flanges, and the shrinking or swelling of the wood, or slight variations in the mortise, will not occasion the trouble encountered with locks having greater bearing-surfaces against the walls of the mortise.

'When the overlapping edge is used,the mortise may be a plain dovetail or the sides curved, as the metal projecting beyond the wings and resting upon the wood will prevent the case dropping into the deep mortise made for the reception of the projecting selvage, key-post and boX.

WVhat I claim as newfand desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of a drawer-front having a gain or cavity,having its rear wall sloping outwardly at the bottom to form both a vertical and inner bearing for the lower edge of a lock-plate, and its side walls provided at the top with countersunk depressions, with the lock fitting within said gain and having spurs b projecting from its selvage to overlap the side walls of said gain and enter the depressions therein, substantially as described.

2. A cabinet-lock having a portion of the edges of its front plate bent inward, forming flaring lugs to enter an undercut mortise and the remaining portion'left straight to close the cavity, and with the bent portion retain the lock in place.

3. A cabinet-lock having its front plate extending laterally beyond the lock-case, and a portion of the edges of said plate bent inward upon each side to form retaining-wings, and the ends of said inwardly-bent wings serrated or barbed to retain the lock in an undercut routed cavity without extraneous fastenings, substantially as described.

EMANUEL G. GORY.

YVitnesses:

ALFRED l3. BENEDICT, GEO. J. MURRAY. 

